A Love Worth Giving. Living in the overflow of God’s Love. Max Lucado. 2002.
Here is another book that was left behind by my predecessor here at St. Andrew’s (can you tell I’ve about used up my book allowance for the year?). This book again just proves how far behind I am on my reading. Other than very short pieces I have never even read Max Lucado, call me busy I guess. This book is still available and for that I am grateful because I imagine we are going to be using it for a study in the near future here at St. Andrew’s.
This isn’t the sort of book where I underline loads of passages and praise God for the brilliance of the writer (and pray for humility and grace in my envy of their abilities). It is, however, clearly a book written by a capable hand. It is a series of meditations on what love is and how God demonstrates it. Most clearly it is a breakdown of the famous Corinthians chapter on love and an attempt to elaborate and define what is meant by each characteristic of love (patience, kindness, hope…) and where we find God demonstrating these characteristics in Scripture.
In our weary culture of over-work and busy-ness this sort of book strikes me quite literally as a godsend. It is a reminder that our value comes from God’s love not our abilities, and most certainly not our bursting-at-the-seams schedules. It is clearly the result of a sermon series, but it is none lesser for it. If anything the book is a helpful weaving of Scripture and application that remains timely despite being 13 years old. Maybe that’s because Scripture when properly handled is always timely.
The book comes with a study guide and questions, extra reading ideas, and other little perks that would make using it for a group study very straightforward, which is nice because wouldn’t you rather spend more time with the ideas and in discussion than in the planning?
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty here for the individual, the husband trying to better love his wife, the mother trying to better love the children, the wronged person trying to forgive, the despairing seeking hope. There is a lot of meat on these bones. I suggest you check it out.
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